Shortly after buying this 96 4.0 4X4 black beauty I experienced a slipping clutch. I took it into a shop that had a superb rep but had deteriorated badly since that rep had been achieved and I was unaware. They sucked.

I contracted to have my clutch replaced with a disc that was heavier duty than OEM but not a two foot depress. Just "better". I also stipulated that I wanted the rear main oil seal replaced along with the input shaft seal on the trans and a new pressure plate. The pedal felt soft when I got it but all was well for many years and 40 k miles.

Then the clutch began acting crazy. It would not disengage and I had to invent new driving techniques. Amazingly it would "heal" and begin acting normal. Then it would get crazy after a few weeks and act like it had air in the lines. I bought a new Master but it healed again and was good for weeks. A few days ago the pedal went to the floor without even a whimper and the circus shifting began anew. I called a shop and they agreed to fix the truck if I could get there on Friday the 8th of Dec. I cautioned about the master bleeding and referred the You Tube vid that is so great. Got it back after 5 hours and it drove well and the clutch was fully disengaging but felt soft like all the air had not been bled from the Master circuit. But I was desperate and they helped me when I was desperate so I overlooked the air especially since it was working. Today, Monday, I couldn't disengage the clutch and it had started acting up on Saturday. Only got a day's operation on my expensive shop fix.

Again I was stranded at home and needed to conjure up the circus technique to get it to the shop. A few blocks from the shop the clutch magically began working just fine again. I know you can't fix something that isn't broken and I wondered that the shop might think me nuts and I wouldn't blame them. Truck worked great for the mechanics test drive and he and I had no explanation. It went for a year getting weak and fixing itself then and sometimes for just a day. I don't mind old stuff breaking but I need to understand the failure. Not at that point, anyway.

Made an appointment for Tues and went home. Got on the computer for the umteenth time to research this problem and about 5 pages into a old thread on clutch "possessions" I got my clue. A poster described a clutch that wouldn't disengage and the the problem was that a shop had interchanged a non-self-adjusting clutch disc with the correct one and that screwed the pooch. The post went on to say that the selfadjuster had to be replaced but could actually be reset with a hyd. Press but wasn't worth the effort. WHAT SELF ADJUSTER said I to myself and nearly blew out my own eardrum. Yup, looked it all up and the self adjuster was a reality and from what I can see if the thing slipped the clutch slave couldn't push the pressure plate far enough to disengage the clutch. Sound familiar? It must then "catch" and start working from the right position and the clutch works till the thing slips again. Mine went from not clutch throw out to working fine in a few pumps.

So that motherless mech that did the clutch didn't replace the self adjuster and it is unlikely that he replaced all the other parts I paid for. They lasted another year and went belly up.

So boys and girls, when you throw a odd part like a self adjusting pressure plate into the soup and get options like all the comparable parts may not have been used there just isn't enough paper to write all the problems/symptoms that are possible. BUT IF YOU GET CLUTCH PROBLEMS THAT MYSTERIOUSLY "heal" THEMSELVES AND THEN REAPPEAR consider this episode of aggravation.

I love this truck. really!

 

Almost all Rangers had self-adjusting pressure plates, when a vehicle uses an internal slave then it needs a self adjusting pressure plate.
Most manual trans vehicles now use internal slaves.
Some early 1980's Rangers had external slaves, with these you can adjust the clutch fork manually as the clutch disc gets thinner.

Could be the shop didn't replace pressure plate.

Yes, self adjusting pressure plates can be reset with hydraulic press or bottle jack and a "hard place", although they are too cheap to really bother with

Self adjusting pressure plate will have 3 or 4 coil springs mounted sideways around the face, they should be fully compressed on a new one

You can use a regular pressure plate in place of self adjusting, but when clutch disc is new it will be hard to get into 1st when stopped, disc is still thick rubbing on flywheel
So disengagement/engagement will be at the very bottom of clutch pedal travel
Then as the miles go by the clutch disc wears down and disengagement/engagement starts to move up on the pedal travel
When it gets to the top of pedal travel clutch starts to slip, disc is too thin.

So self adjusting is just a trade off, keeps disengagement/engagement at the same place in pedal travel, because the pressure plate is moving closer and closer to flywheel as clutch disc wears down.
You usually get a longer clutch life with self adjusting, because you don't get as much initial wear on the new disc